Once upon a time, the St. Louis Blues had a core group of players who crumbled under the pressure of the playoffs. They may still exit from the playoffs earlier than Blues fans would like, but for the most part there’s a new core in place which has exercised many of the demons of old.

Except David Perron.

Perron falls into a unique category as he was with the Blues during some of their most frustrating struggles and then returned to join the team with a very different looking core. Unfortunately, some old habits are hard to break and Perron is exhibiting many of the infuriating qualities which forced the Blues to gradually break up their core over the past few seasons.

Perron has been awful in the playoffs. Really, really awful.

He has just one assist and 12 shots through nine playoff games this year. That’s tough to stomach considering he was one of the team’s leaders on offense during the regular season (46 points in 82 games). Worse is the fact that Perron’s overall play hasn’t been enough to mask his poor offensive productions. He’s spending more time trying to pick fights (which don’t result in much of anything) than actually hunting down the puck, winning battles or generating chances. Some may say he’s trying to “get under the skin” of the opponent, but that doesn’t mean too much – especially when the opponent continually laughs it off and is ahead 3-1 in the series.

As the Blues make lineup decisions to try and solve the Nashville Predators, it’s impossible not to notice Perron’s lack of contributions and wonder why he wasn’t benched earlier. The Blues tried to shake things up and yet one of their biggest underachievers is still earning time.

Unfortunately, the Blues are on the brink. By the time anything is done about Perron’s woes, it may be too late.